All 30.0 - The Whale Mage
Harlequin returned with Pierce after three days, though apparently only a few hours had passed in Etheria. He quickly tired of trying to mime to Lucca and resorted to flashcards. He needed Lucca to wish to reinstate their partnership, because that was the only way to trigger his magic abilities. Lucca did, though his poor mood held over from the last week did nothing to help his enthusiasm. When he was a mask once more, Harlequin explained that there was a fey who could probably help them. They needed someone who was better at arcane and divine magic than Ratik’nun, who could meddle with Victor’s binding properly. There was an avatar of Chaos, a being of immense power, who lived somewhere in the ocean. His name, roughly translated from Etherian, was Whale Mage. Unfortunately, neither he nor Gemini had the ability to reach him. Their only hope was to find someone of his court, and plead for their assistance. Luckily, he had found a servant of the mage’s, Lorelei, who was living in a human village in Arroyito. She was their best chance. Gemini teleported them all to the small coastal fishing village in question. Gemini took the form of two humans to blend in: a man and woman who were obviously fraternal twins. Going to the address they had been given, the group found a tiny house in the slums. Most people decided to take a walk, so as to not mob whomever was in the house. Ryuji, Clover and Lucca went to the door while the others scattered throughout town. A middle-aged Arroyitan woman answered the door. The group stated their case to her; the woman seemed shocked at their knowledge. She invited them in for tea, though she was very quiet and seemed lost in thought. Eventually, she explained that she was indeed a fey, but her pelt and flute had been stolen by her husband Cheng, preventing her from reclaiming her true form and returning to the Whale Mage’s court. The picture the woman painted of the man she was married to was of an abusive, drunken lech, displeasing all three people. While they spoke, Lucca spied a little girl watching them from the adjacent room. He waved, which scared the timid girl away. The three thanked the woman and left to question Cheng. He was not at the docks, though they found him in a bar. The man tried to lewdly hit on Clover when they approached, which was less than appreciated. Ryuji forced the information out of him: he had sold the items to a sea witch who lived up the coast. With the information he needed, Ryuji turned on his heel and started to leave. The man, angry at Ryuji’s arrogance, grabbed a bottle and lunged at the Yetoman. Clover and Lucca both failed to grab the man; Ryuji, already livid at him for his behaviour, whirled around and struck the man violently. The man pitched over, seriously hurt and showing signs of severe frostbite. The Yetoman hurried out of the bar while Lucca quickly healed the man, leaving him stable. Ryuji apologized to Lucca and Clover when they joined him; he had forgotten that he had that particular power. Before going to the location Cheng had described, they tried to find the others. They did not find Pierce, but updated the others. Cohen joined them as they went to meet the witch. Along the beach, they found a sea cottage, the exterior of which was covered in various interesting knick-knacks which impressed Lucca. Knocking at the door got the yelled response of an old woman, unwilling to open up. Yelling through the closed door, they inquired to the whereabouts of the pelt and the flute. To her memory (and the memory of another, smaller voice who interrupted occasionally), she sold the pelt to some local mermaids, and used the flute as part of a binding spell on a creature living in a local pond. They pressed for further details, but she wouldn’t help them any further without payment. As everyone looked through their pockets for something that might interest her, Cohen offered a sample of changeling blood, gaining him an incredulous and furious look from Lucca. The woman doubted the veracity of his claim; he approached the door and a small slot opened. He passed the vial inside, where it was received by a seagull. The bird closed the hatch. A minute later, an old woman in eclectic clothes opened the door and enthusiastically explained how to call the mermaids, their best chances of dealing with them (which weren’t good), and the location of the pond where they would be able to fish out the flute (though that would unbind the evil spirit. Their problem now). As they walked back to town, they decided that time was of the essence: they would split into two groups to retrieve the pelt and flute. They knew how to summon the mermaids, but the issue was in dealing with them after that point. Mermaids only liked two things to their knowledge: music and attractive human males, who they rape and drown. They decided to send their more attractive men (Ryuji, Pierce and Cress) to deal with the spirit in the pond. Clover and Lucca (in a female form), along with Cohen (not attractive), would summon the mermaids and offer them a violin-playing Victor, bundled in water-breathing spells, who would hopefully be able to satiate them and retrieve the pelt. No one had any issues with this plan. Gemini agreed to stay and watch Virgil. Their ability to care for a child came into question, but no one thought that Virgil would get into serious trouble for the afternoon. In a rowboat, the second team initiated their plan. Victor, wearing only some pants, began to play the violin, while the others put the appropriate offerings in the water. Two humanoid-like fish creatures swam up, circling the boat like sharks. Their features were far more akin to fishes than mammals, and their predatory actions were unmistakable. Eventually, they lunged up, grabbing Victor and pulling him under. He managed to drop his violin in the boat before going over. Nearly an hour later, he returned, covered in scratches, bruises and no longer in possession of pants, but also had a seal pelt. He declared he wasn’t maybe the biggest fan of merfolk sex. Ryuji recovered the flute with little difficulty from the bottom of the pond. As Pierce and Ryuji investigated the flute, Cress noticed an enchanting white horse nearby. The other two ignored both him and the horse. Cress approached the animal, which acted tame. As he pet it, he was compelled to climb onto its back, where he became stuck. Pierce and Ryuji struggled to free Cress before he drowned, and they managed to kill the beast and rescue Cress. Everyone met up eventually outside of the shanty house; Ryuji, Lucca and Clover were again the ones to go inside. Cheng had come home; he attacked Ryuji on sight, but Clover knocked him out without permanently damaging him. They returned Lorelei’s things, much to her shock and amazement. She went into the opposite room. A little while later, she came back out with two little girls, wearing packs. The woman and her daughters, introduced as Nuan and Xue, left with the group who escorted them to the ocean shore. She kissed her daughters on the beach and spoke to them both privately. She then addressed the group, and implored them to take care of her daughters for her. Despite being a bit shocked, they agreed. Satisfied, Lorelei draped the pelt over her shoulders and walked into the ocean until she disappeared from sight. A seal surfaced some distance away. The sound of a flute could be heard. At its notes, several gigantic crabs, big enough for people to ride, crawled out of the water. Pierce, still obviously trying to make up for his earlier transgressions, volunteered to stay back and watch the children. Gemini offered to stay as well, as they were now professional human child watchers. Everyone else mounted the giant crabs, which scuttled underwater with their riders on board. They were enchanted so that air bubbles protected those who sat on them, and they plunged into the ocean depths. An indeterminate amount of time later, the group was taken into a strange coral-like structure, almost certainly in Etheria. The inside was dry, so they dismounted. They were escorted by Lorelei, in a human form once more, to a large hall. A number of people were lined up, forming a path to a raised dias. While they all appeared human, looking at them out of the corner of your eye revealed various sea creatures in their place. On the dias was a strange creature: a cross between a human wearing flowing robes and a sperm whale. It barely stood 4 feet tall, and stared wide-eyed into space. Lorelei fell into her place in the line of attendants, before stepping forward and explaining that the benevolent Whale Mage would reward them for returning his attendant to her rightful place. Suddenly, Whale Mage was standing in front of Lucca. It stared through him for a moment before patting his arm and holding out a cat towards him. The cat was an older, chubby specimen, and seemed rather happy and content; it came from nowhere, and Whale Mage held it out to the druid until he accepted it. Lucca didn’t know how or why, but supposed that he had a cat now. Whale Mage stood immediately in front of Cress, and vaguely gestured him into a hug. As Cress pulled away from the hug, Whale Mage stole his shirt. Destroying the shirt in a paper shredder that came from nowhere and disappeared just as quickly, Whale Mage threw the scraps into a tank, where octopus wove the bits into a bracelet. They tossed the band out, whereupon Whale Mage stomped on it a few times before presenting it to Cress. The elf thanked him, but mentioned that maybe he’d like another shirt. The fey obliged him with a positively garish hawaiian shirt with a french fry print. Cohen was vaguely goaded into handing over his pen, the only thing he had managed to keep with him from his days in prison. Whale Mage ate it, before pulling a pound cake out of his mouth and passing that to Cohen, who was obligated to eat it. It wasn’t bad at all, though Cohen mourned the loss of his pen. When Whale Mage turned his attentions to Ryuji, the Yetoman found his pocket suddenly overflowing with pebbles. As they piled up on the floor, the fey slowly picked through them until he had a bunch in his small, mitten-like hand. The pebbles stopped flowing out of Ryuji’s pocket as Whale Mage placed each of his specifically-chosen stones inside of suddenly-present oysters. After a few minutes, he retrieved them, now beautifully polished. He tossed the pearls into a new tank filled with squid, who strung them into a bracelet that was presented to Ryuji. Cohen found his pen in the center of the cake he was eating, now enchanted. The two bracelets received by the other men were also enchanted. Clover was told to lean over. She kept leaning until she was laying on the floor (though the Mage’s face never seemed to get any closer); he pulled something from behind her ear and gave it to her. It was a moon pearl. A large turtle appeared, carrying a model of a house. This was given to Tarragon, along with a hammer. Finally, Whale Mage turned his attentions to Victor. He stared into the middle distance around the man for a moment before pointing to a tree. Following the Mage’s pantomimed directions, Victor climbed the tree and tried to retrieve a specific branch. When he did, the bough snapped and sent him falling painfully to the hard ground. Whale Mage took the branch and threw it in a pot of unidentified liquid. He pulled it out and wiped it on a sea lion that was suddenly standing there. He repeated this process several times with various sea mammals. Eventually, the bough had become a polished staff. Whale Mage held out the staff towards Victor. When Victor reached forwards to take it, the fey suddenly pulled back and struck Victor violently with the stick across his face. When the stick connected, Victor’s appearance flickered; for a brief instant, he looked like a white humanoid devil, wearing Yetoman clothing and possessing black wings, claws, horns and a tail. Whale Mage struck Victor repeatedly with the staff until he fell down; his appearance flickered each time. When he finally finished, he left Victor lying on the ground. His hair was white again, and he seemed to have regained the tail that had appeared after the incident with the body swapping. Lucca tended to him, to see if he was alright; apparently, Victor had also regained a little of his memory from his last 7 years. With everyone gifted, Whale Mage returned to his dias. They thanked him, which Lorelei acknowledged, before they returned to their crabs which took them to the shore they had disembarked from.Category:Advent of the All